Summus Proelium

Murphy, Peyton, and Roald had known that something was wrong from the moment they saw how Paintball was acting out on that field. Almost anyone who knew anything about how he normally operated would have been able to tell that he was being way too intense for what amounted to a game. Not that he hadn't been trying before, but there was trying and then there was trying.

By the time that match was over, all three of them were convinced that something big had gone down in Arizona. They just had no idea what it could be. What could have motivated Cassidy to go out there and act like winning a ring was the only way to stop someone from burning down the stadium with the entire crowd in it or something? But if it was that kind of threat, wouldn't they have just found a way to evacuate the place? Wouldn't they just warn people?

Obviously, something wasn't adding up. Their collective first instinct had been to text Cassidy for some answers. Well, their first instinct was to leave the shop just in case they were overreacting and things were actually okay, or at least not as bad as they thought. The last thing they wanted to do was make the poor Cuddles and Qwerty panic for no reason if this wasn't really a disaster.

So, they left the shop together, acting as though everything was fine. Before they could actually try to contact Cassidy, however, Murphy had pointed out that it might be a good idea to have Wren with them. Unfortunately, trying to text and call that girl, and Fred when that failed, hadn't accomplished anything. They weren't answering. And since the trio didn't know exactly which ice cream place they'd actually gone to with the Ten Towers woman and that Conservator from Chicago, they were kind of out of luck unless they wanted to try going to every single one through the entire city. And if it got to the point where that was their only choice, it meant the situation was even worse than they'd thought. Seriously, why wasn't Wren responding at all?

They'd still been talking about what to do when the call came from the shop. So it turned out that while they had been trying to spare Qwerty and the Cuddles from knowing anything was wrong, those guys had already been finding out even more about what was actually happening. So much for that idea. And they still had no idea where Wren was. They were batting a thousand.

Now, Peyton was the first to find her voice when the details were summarized after they made it back to the shop. "Okay, so uhh…" She gulped audibly. "I guess it's safe to say we are way out of our league here. No, I mean like… beyond out of our league. This is so far beyond us it might be funny if it wasn't so fucking terrifying." The red-haired girl couldn't help the shudder that ran through her.

"She's right," Roald agreed, his voice cracking. "That's-- she's… it's too much. We can't handle this. Casura's the sort of problem they call Armistice to deal with. And even they're not enough to actually catch her."

Murphy started to say something, before Peyton cut in. "Exactly. You think we stand the slightest hint of a chance of doing anything that so much as very mildly inconveniences her? Cuz lemme tell ya, if we did inconvenience her, it wouldn't be for long. She'll put all of us in the ground."

Qwerty was bounding from one shelf to another all over the room, wings flapping wildly. "It doesn't matter! I don't care if she's a god! Or worse, an owl. Creepy, silent, evil things with night powers and talons--" The parrot-squirrel shook off his obvious fear. "I don't care. It's Cassidy. I'll fist fight a hundred owls if they try to hurt them. Even if I've just gotta fight 'em all by myself!"

"You won't have to," Ash assured him immediately, trying himself up to his full, decidedly unimpressive toy dragon height. "Cuz I'll be right there with you the whole time. We'll fight her."

Murphy finally spoke up, cutting off the others before they could chime in as something suddenly occurred to her. "Just hang on a second, what was that you said Cassidy was saying about Casura having people they care about when they were talking to that Nqobile chick? That's why they were doing all this, why they were so upset, right? Apparently Casura has hostages. It's not Izzy, obviously. She already talked to you. And it's no one that Izzy would notice, like their parents or brother. So it has to be someone Cassidy would be that upset about, but not one Izzy would immediately notice was missing. That sorta narrows down the field a bit, doesn't it?"

Roald gave a slow nod, a frown creasing his face. "That's right, she's gotta have a hostage, but not one Izzy knows about or she would've told you guys. So who is Casura holding the gun to?"

Aspen's head shook quickly, making her ears flap. "We dunno." A gasp escaped her, as she bounced anxiously. "What if it's Wren and Fred? What if that's why we can't get hold of them?"

Peyton considered that along with the others before making a face. "I don't think so. I don't think the timing works out right for it to be those two. It'd be really tight anyway. Sure, Casura could just teleport here, grab them and then go straight back, but still, I really don't think that's it."

Roald was pacing back and forth, running his hand through his hair. "Man, I wish Sierra and Paige were--" His eyes widened. "Oh shit, Sierra and Paige! Has anyone talked to them yet?"

The others all exchanged looks, the realization mounting before Peyton grabbed her phone and spent the next couple minutes trying to text and call both girls to no avail. She kept that up until everyone knew the truth. It wasn't exactly surprising by then, but it was rather disappointing.

"Well," Murphy muttered with a fist against her forehead, "at least we know why Cassidy is so upset. It's those two. And probably Irelyn too, I guess. No wonder Cassidy's doing what Casura wants. I mean, besides the obvious reasons for why do what the terrifyingly evil Fell bitch says. Also, Cassidy doing what Casura says and we can't contact Wren while she's out with Caishen but maybe someone could hire Cavalcade or ask for help from Carousel or even find out if anyone from La Casa knows anything. Can we just put a moratorium on any and all Ca names?"

"Yeah, that's just great," Peyton muttered with a heavy sigh as they all took in the full extent of the situation they were in at this point. "We've got Cassidy being watched like a hawk, obviously, and this bitch has Paige and Sierra. Between that and Wren not answering for whatever reason, I'm pretty sure that's basically the majority of our combat strength out of commission right now."

Roald gave her an apologetic look before gently noting, "I think that means you're our strongest person right now. Murph and I have Wren's weapons but we don't have powers or anything."

"We can help," Aspen put in, "but uhh, yeah, none of us have powers that could hurt Casura."

The truth of that hit the red-headed girl, making her rock backwards on her heels with a muttered curse. "Oh shit, we really are doomed. What the hell are we supposed to do now? We couldn't beat Casura even if we had the whole team here. It just wouldn't happen. All of us working together wouldn't stand a chance. What can we do when it's just us? We don't even merit a speed bump against someone like her. She'll just flick a hand and incinerate all of us."

Qwerty had jumped over to land on the front counter next to the register. "We can't just give up! Sure, she's scary, but we can be scary too, right? We have to puff ourselves up and look even scarier than she is. We have to trick her so she thinks we're even stronger to make her give up ."

Willow raised one small penguin wing to agree. "Maybe not that we're stronger, but I like the idea of tricking her somehow. Or at least using our brains. Maybe we can ask for help? I mean, even if Cassidy can't tell anyone, that doesn't mean we can't. Maybe we can get an army to come stop Casura. The second they find out she's around, there'll be plenty of people to help."

The others considered that before Peyton pointed out, "But what if it goes wrong? What if they aren't as careful as we are? You're right, they'll care about getting to Casura. What if they care more about getting to her than they do about protecting her hostages? I mean, it's Casura, how often do they know where she's going to be? They might see Sierra and the others as an acceptable loss." Even as she said it, the girl's face twisted with the worry that it might come down to that.

With a curse, Murphy put in, "And it's not even just that. The more people who find out about this, the bigger chance that Casura might hear something even if they are careful. Think about it, she's gotta have ways of knowing if someone's coming after her, right? She's already using hostages to make Cassidy do what she wants, so what exactly is stopping her from having some Conservator or cop or someone like that under her thumb who could tell her what's going on? If she finds out she's been compromised, she might think Cassidy did it. Then she'd… she'd kill all the hostages."

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Roald was the first to break the momentary, rather emotional, silence that followed. His voice was a very soft whisper, but they all heard him just fine. "Cassidy would never forgive us if we let something happen to them. And I wouldn't forgive us either. We can't risk something like that, we just-- we can't let it happen. Which means we can't call in the cavalry, not like that anyway. We can't risk Casura finding out."

"Rubi," Murphy immediately realized. "Sure, we definitely can't trust that all those people aren't compromised somehow, but we know Rubi isn't. And she knows about Cassidy. She can help."

"Right, so that's one more person," Ash noted, slamming one clawed fist into his other paw.

Aspen hesitantly asked, "But can she help trick Casura somehow? I don't think it's gonna be easy to make someone like her decide to run away and leave the hostages safe and sound."

"So take the hostages away!" That was Qwerty, practically exploding with anxiety and worry. "If she doesn't have the hostages anymore, she can't make Cassidy do what she says, right?"

"Wait, he's got a point," Peyton all-but gasped. "We can-- okay so the entire reason we can't call in an army to pound this bitch into dust is because of the hostages. But what if we take those hostages away? What if we find where she's keeping Sierra and the others and just get them out of there while Casura's gone doing whatever else she does? She can't be staying with them the whole time. They're probably locked up somewhere. If we can get in there and save them, then we can tell the whole world Casura's there and throw an army of Touched right in her face."

"Not to mention get Paintball out from under her thumb," Roald agreed, a slight frown creasing his forehead as he thought for a moment. "Or, you know, as far out from under her thumb as anyone can be when Casura's paying attention to them." After all, it wasn't as though freeing the hostages would suddenly make Casura weak. The woman was one of, if not the single most dangerous Fells in the world. But at least getting Sierra and the rest away from her would help.

"Okay, so we've gotta get down there and find them," Aspen declared. The rabbit toy stood up straight and tall (or as tall as her small figure would allow) as she added, "But we still can't let Cassidy find out we're there, or that we know anything, until we know it's safe to talk to them."

"We need to find out how they're being monitored," Willow agreed, floating back and forth on her tiny hoverboard as it hovered just off one of the tables. "Casura can't be watching all the time."

Peyton's hand rose. "Uh, can we go back to the 'find the hostages' part? How exactly are we supposed to do that? Does anyone have a Paige and Sierra locator thing? Do they come with GPS?" She paused, blinking twice at the thought before giving a surprised start. "Wait, hang on, they're Biolems. Do they actually have a GPS thing we could use to find them? Which computer around here has the Biolem LoJack program?" The girl was already looking around hopefully.

"Hey, wait a second," Ash abruptly cut in, his tiny dragon head popping up with realization, "we dunno anything about a low jack, or a high one, whatever those are, but what about that thing Cherry heard Casura say on the phone about what she was doing when Paintball called her?"

Aspen gazed at him blankly for just a second before remembering. "You mean that whole Dance Dance Revolution thing? Oh, oh wait, she was beating a guy up because he beat her high score. That must mean it was in some sort of public arcade, right? She had to have used the machine before, then saw that poor guy show up and beat her score. So it's gotta be a place she spent some extra time in, or at least the machine would be close enough to a place she spent time in that she could see the machine from there and notice someone beating her score."

"Uh." Peyton absorbed that, head tilting. "Okay, it's not perfect, I can think of other ways that could happen without being like you said, but it's a place to start at least? If we find a guy who was… um, either beat up or killed near an arcade, maybe we can go from there. I mean, there's a lot of ifs and maybes, like if that's how it went down and maybe it's near where Casura keeps her prisoners. Not to mention all the ifs and maybes about us actually being able to get into the place. But… but it's more than we had before. If we can just get Sierra and the others out, I…"

She trailed off, face recoiling almost as harshly and suddenly as though she'd been slapped. And without missing a beat, Murphy noted, "You just remembered how far away Arizona is, huh? How are you gonna convince your mom to let you leave town, let alone the state for that long?"

"I dunno," Peyton admitted, slumping down in a nearby folding chair as she stared at the floor uncertainly. "She barely lets me come here every day without calling me every hour. If she finds out I left the state, I'll be grounded for ten years, minimum. I can't even tell her the truth. If I tell her what's really going on, she'll ground me for twenty years. She wouldn't understand at all."

Everyone sat silently for a few long seconds, considering the problem. Finally, it was Roald who snapped his fingers and straightened up with a blurted, "Camping trip. It's summer, right? Tell your mom you're going on a camping trip with the rest of us. Fred can be the adult in charge. She'll be nervous, sure, but it's better than knowing you're really all the way down in Phoenix."

"And if anything happens to me," Peyton pointed out softly while standing up to look out the window, "the last thing I'll have said to my mom will be a lie. A major, huge lie. But hey, at least it's not like Casura tends to kill everyone who tries to stand up to her, right? It'll probably be fine, there's no way I'll be horribly murdered and force my mother to know I didn't trust her enough to tell her the biggest secret in my life, even when I was about to do something this dangerous."

"You don't have to go," Roald immediately put in. "It's okay, no one's gonna blame you for staying here, especially with your mom and…. and everything. Seriously, this is, um, a lot."

"Oh please, like I'd just sit around here with my thumbs up my butt while you guys go face off with Casura," Peyton snapped, head shaking. "It's like you said, I'm the strongest Touched we've got left on the team right now. And who else here is as terrified by that idea as I am?"

Every hand and paw in the room went up, before Murphy hurriedly noted, "Hey, it's not like the plan is to actually face her, right? That'd be beyond idiotic. We just want to find where she's got the others, break in and get them out of there before she has any idea we're even there. No part of that plan involves fighting this evil bitch at all. Your marbles could seriously help us break into wherever she's keeping them, and even help carry them out if they've been, um, immobilized."

"I must be losing my marbles to even consider this," Peyton muttered, arms folded tightly against her stomach as her expression turned a bit more queasy. "But it's Paintball, it's Cassidy. And it's Sierra and Paige. It's all of them. They'd have our backs if the positions were reversed. So yeah, I'll…" She gave a heavy sigh. "I'll talk to my mom. She won't be happy about it, but whatever.

"But what about Wren and Fred?" Willow immediately chimed in, flapping her tiny penguin wings anxiously. "And how're we supposed to get all the way to Phoenix quick enough to help? We checked, that's like a thirty hour drive, and most of us can't actually help do the driving part!"

"Wren has a self-driving van," Roald pointed out, "so that's not a big deal. But thirty hours might be too late, and like you said, we still don't know where Wren even is or what's taking so long."

Murphy looked at the clock before quickly insisting, "We've gotta split up. Roald and me can find Rubi and get her onboard. We'll find out where Wren's ice cream party thing is too. Peyton, you tell your mom about the camping trip. Cuddles and Qwerty, keep spying on Cassidy as much as you can, but don't let them know anything. And try to throw together everything we might need for a trip like this. We'll meet back here ASAP."

"Cherry says Cassidy's looking at contestant records or something right now, back at the stadium," Aspen informed the others after getting a telepathic update from her headmate. "She's not sure why, but Cassidy seems pretty excited about it. They went through the receptionist to ask for them and everything. She's gonna try to get a look at the papers if there's a chance to see what Cassidy's doing, exactly."

For just a moment, everyone there tried to think of why Cassidy could possibly want to do that, unless they thought Casura might be secretly competing and was trying to figure out who she was posing as? But in the end, they shook it off. It was probably important, but they couldn't think about it right then. There was too much to do.

So, as planned, they all split up. Murphy and Roald took a rideshare, which was a rather new and different experience. Usually they would've taken the bus, even with their newfound money just because it seemed like a major waste. But this was an emergency, and every minute counted. So they took the ride all the way to Ten Towers, as themselves. Rubi's civilian cover had her working there as a paralegal, so both of them had passes to get in and see her.

Unfortunately, while the pair made it up to the office area where Rubi worked, they were left sitting in the waiting room for entirely too long. They spent ten minutes anxiously squirming in the too-comfortable chairs, slurping ice water and ignoring the fancy television. Finally, Murphy had enough and jumped to her feet as some random guy in a suit went rushing past. "Hey! We're looking for our--his sister, Rubi, is she still in a meeting or what?"

"Oh, what--" The guy paused, shifting uncomfortably. He had dark blond hair in a near buzzcut and looked like he was in his late thirties. "Um, your sister, right, yeah, Rubi." The guy hesitated before lowering his voice a bit as he explained, "I'm Eddie, okay? Part of my job is covering for Rubes when she has to go out on mission. Your sister's still helping the rest of the team deal with that robbery on Tenth. With Caishen and her kid trapped in that stasis field with that Conservator lady, it's all hands on deck."

The two exchanged confused looks, then turned back to him, with Roald speaking for them. "Okay, um, important question.

"What stasis field?"